1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to computerized wagering systems generally, and more specifically to a wagering system with improved communication between a central computer and remote terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lotteries are used by many countries, states and localities as a way to generate revenue without raising taxes. There are various games available for wagering, such as Lotto and Keno, dependent upon the locality. In a typical lottery, a player will select or may be assigned a set of numbers upon which to wager. Each number set is referred to as a play, and the combination of all plays is referred to as the pool. From the pool an administrator will usually withdraw a percentage of money wagered, and the remainder will be available to the players in the form of winnings. The winnings may be distributed to one or more players, once again depending upon the rules of the particular game. The numbers chosen by the player in a single play may be required to be unique in some games, while in pari-mutuel games a number may be shared by many players, resulting in divided winnings. Furthermore, there may also be winnings for numbers that only partially match the winning number. For example, games that require six different numbers will often pay winnings to players that have matched three, four or five of the six numbers. The biggest prize, however, will typically be reserved for a player who matches all six numbers. In many games, some or all of the winnings may be rolled over to a new game, in the event there are not any matches for the particular category of winnings.
One lottery game which assigns number sets to players uses random numbers generated by a central computer to produce so-called "quick picks." These games reduce the probability of duplicate winners and consequential lowering of payoff prices common in pari-mutuel games. The larger top prize payouts help with publicity, and the games are popular among casual users. Tickets are preferably generated on-site, which reduces the risk of tickets being improperly printed or altered, while also simplifying distribution of tickets. A very desirable feature of the computer generated number selections is the speed at which the player and agent may both complete a wagering transaction, so the benefits of concurrent ticket generation can only be realized if tickets can truly be generated instantly.
Unfortunately, one of the challenges of lotteries, particularly with wide geographical participation, is that a wagering system may be required to process tens or even hundreds of thousands of plays each day. These transactions must be secure, since pay-outs may involve millions of dollars. Security not only includes fraud prevention, but also includes secure storage and retention of each play from a pool. In the prior art, security of the system has been ensured by requiring an agent or vendor to submit wagers to a central location for verification. The central location then relays authorization, often in the form of a ticket serial number which may be used by the vendor to print the lottery ticket. The player gets a printed receipt, while the agent and the central computer may each have a record of the wager. Security is enhanced, since each play is recorded against the particular selling agent, and the central computer will have data necessary to monitor and regulate the activity occurring at an agent's terminal. Inappropriate activity occurring at a single terminal can be quickly recognized, so liabilities from attempted break-ins or theft of sales agent equipment can be constrained. A significant challenge with this system, however, is the need for frequent communication with the central computer.
In older wagering systems, communication with a central location occurred through an exchange of paper documents. However, the paper was easily altered or damaged, and clerical errors were a problem. Furthermore, wide geographic areas were difficult to process quickly, limiting such systems mostly to relatively small, local pools. With more economical desktop data processing capability came the ability to reduce or eliminate human intervention, thereby eliminating clerical errors. Some systems began using magnetic media instead of paper to transport plays to the central location. The magnetic media addressed some clerical issues, but exchanging magnetic media did not improve turn-around time or system security, since the media could still be tampered with and still required time for physical transport to a central location.
Today, improved telecommunications systems allow nearly instantaneous exchange between agent terminals and the central computer, eliminating the need for a package courier and reducing any delay that might be associated therewith. Desktop computers process a play and then establish a telecommunications link with a central computer through either a dial or dedicated line. Therein lies a constraint, however. The amount of data exchanged between an agent terminal and central computer is relatively small, which would normally dictate a dial up line. Unfortunately, the cost associated with remote locations dialing in using long distance circuits can be prohibitive, limiting the geographical region for the lottery to the local calling area. Furthermore, any delay in processing is inconvenient to both players and agents, particularly with the computer selected numbers games. Yet the dial line requires the added delay of establishing the telephone connection. When larger payouts are available and the lottery widely publicized, sales should be most rapid. Unfortunately, it is those same days when demand is the greatest that the telecommunication lines tend to encounter more "busy" connections. As a result, dial up lines are generally unacceptable.
One alternative to the dial-up connection is the use of a dedicated telecommunications link which is available for immediate data exchange. With this type of link, dialing delays, including "busy" signals, are eliminated. Unfortunately, such links are prohibitively expensive and can usually only be justified for the busiest of agent systems, or where there are a number of agent terminals in close physical proximity which can be grouped together to share such a link. Furthermore, in spite of the high costs associated with hard-wired links, there is nothing to be gained in terms of system delays which occur on the busiest days. While each play may contain a seemingly small amount of data, the central computer must still receive and process the data on each play. On those busy days when tens or hundreds of thousands of plays need to processed, even fairly small data amounts can easily flood a system and tremendously delay processing. State of the art systems address this problem by designing networks and systems capable of handling these peak loads (although requiring a capital investment in facilities). In developed countries, the communications infrastructure can support these requirements. In areas where the infrastructure is not available, alternate technologies may be required involving private networks using satellite and radio links custom designed for this purpose. These methods substantially increase the cost of lottery systems.
The prior art has disclosed various improvements, but these improvements are not completely satisfactory.
For example, McCarthy, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,312 incorporated herein by reference, proposes another more recent alternative. In the McCarthy system, desktop or hand held agent terminals are used to process and accumulate plays off-line, with subsequent transmission to the central computer. Upon establishing a connection with the central computer, the agent terminals will download complete information such as a unique agent terminal identification, serial numbers of tickets sold, numbers selected on each play, and other similar known information which may be desired, even, in some instances, including complete demographic information on the player. By enabling the agent terminals to process and accumulate data in a secure manner, the wagering system may operate in either an on-line mode or an off-line mode, allowing the system to operate nearly instantaneously, even in the event the central computer becomes intermittently inaccessible. Unfortunately, however, the McCarthy system must still transmit a full, potentially very large record of data for each ticket sold, including selected wager numbers and ticket serial numbers.
Moreover, Burr et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,337, discloses an instant ticket wagering system. In the Burr et al wagering system, agent terminals (therein referred to as point-of-sale terminals) are equipped with modems, enabling communication with a central computer over standard dial-up telephone lines. Either the agent terminals or the central computer can initiate communication, and preferably the sales agent is not responsible for initiating or making the connection, but instead the terminals are accordingly programmed. Communication may advantageously be during off hours, allowing the agent terminals to respond instantaneously to players during sales periods and instantaneously to the central computer at other times. However, the Burr et al system disadvantageously uses pre-printed tickets which are bearer instruments having value. The tickets may be altered or stolen more readily, and must be accounted for carefully. The Burr et al disclosure illustrates this accounting system. However, there is no disclosure nor suggestion on how to improve the performance of on-line or off-line wagering systems using "quick pick" tickets generated at the point-of-sale terminal or how to reduce the data transmission requirements of such a system.
Additionally, Kapur, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,295 discloses an off-line method of selling lottery tickets using a large number of security techniques and encryption methods useful for security purposes. While many of these techniques could find application in the present invention and are therefore also incorporated herein by reference, there are no teachings which illustrate how to reduce the amount of data transferred to the central, or host computer. Rapp, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,787 is also incorporated herein by reference for his disclosure of suitable algorithms which could be used together with the present invention to generate random numbers.